Minorities put hope in PKS’ ‘pluralism’

The Prosperous Justice Party’s (PKS) commitment to embrace pluralism has raised expectations of a future that guarantees the rights of the minorities.

A Catholic priest from the Indonesian Bishops Council, Father Beni Susetyo, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that one of the consequences of the party’s new commitment is that it would have to fight for the interest of all.

“If the [wider] public supports the PKS because of this new look, the party must stand up for universal interests.

“[It should advocate] laws that are not shallow but instead aim for people’s welfare. And we hope the party moves from dealing with just morality [issues] and spend more time on welfare [issues],” he said.

The PKS has been known as a conservative Islamist party. However, it has taken a recent turn toward pluralism by declaring it would seek to be more inclusive in a bid to garner more votes for the 2014 election.

The party’s president Luthfi Hasan Ishaq said during a congress last week that the PKS was committed to building an open nation as formulated by the country’s founding fathers.

Despite adopting Islam as its basic ideology, the PKS has vowed to be inclusive and would involve non-Muslims in its leadership.

Secretary-general for the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), Gomar Gultom, said he hoped that PKS’ new-found openness had “substance”.

“It means there would be equality between its Muslim and non-Muslim members. We can expect that the party would, for example, support non-Muslim candidates in legislative and regional elections in areas where Christians are not the majority,” he added.

Gomar said the PKS has learned that fundamentalism was beginning to lose ground in the country.

“This is the loss to the fundamentalists. The doctrine will gradually be left behind,” he told the Post.

Beni said the party might have decided that political parties whose ideologies are based on religions could only attract so many votes.

“This is a challenge for the PKS to become more professional. In the future, it should choose to tout for people who have the capability and not just the religion,” he added.

Gomar expressed hope for less future destruction, burning and closing down of houses of worship “If a party like the PKS does the talking, the impact would be greater,” he said.

But Slamet Effendi Yusuf of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) said he did not believe the PKS has a say in the matter.

“It is just a matter of people being immature as followers of their religions. There is also communication problems between them,” he added.

The council representative said he welcomed PKS’ commitment to embrace pluralism.

Indonesia’s social condition has forced the PKS to become a democratic political party, in which freedom and equality are upheld, he added.

In 2005, the MUI was  criticized for issuing draconian fatwa outlawing liberal Islamic thought and pluralism. Islamic interpretations based on liberalism, secularism and pluralism “contradict Islamic teachings”, the fatwa said.

But Slamet said supporting the PKS’ move was not the same as supporting liberalism and pluralism of Islamic teaching.

“We support social pluralism but not the concept that all religions are the same,” he added.